The Dangjin Thermal Power Plant in Chungcheongnamdo is op-

erated by Korea East-West Power Company Ltd (EWP). From

the start, it was clear that the extension of the Dangjin Thermal

Power Plant by building units 9 and 10 would require world-

class engineering technologies and next-generation power-

plant design in order to meet the environmental and economic

objectives and deliver high-efficiency operation. Korean Sys-

Korea East-West Power Company Installs zenon

The Dangjin Thermal Power Plant is located in the north-westerly province of Chungcheongnamdo in Korea. It is an established plant with eight active coal-fired units with 500MW. In 2011, work began to scope two new power plant units. These units – Dangjin 9 & 10 – will be Korea’s first 1,000MW USC coal-fired power plants.

An electric partnership: COPA-DATA and NEXPO

tem Integrator, NEXPO, based in Seongnam-Si, has a proven

record of delivering successful automation and engineering

projects in the Korean energy sector and, as a result, began bid-

ding to be involved in the project in 2011. NEXPO was awarded

the contract for supplying the Electrical equipment Control and

Monitoring System (ECMS) for the thermal plant in November

2012.

energy & infrastructure I korea ewp

a need for advanced software Although NEXPO has delivered successful projects for the five

Korean GENCOs since 2003, with two strong references deliv-

ering ECMS systems in similar ‘combined cycle power plants’,

the project team at NEXPO felt that for this project a more ad-

vanced software was needed. Park Mun-Hwan, Engineering De-

partment Leader at NEXPO, explains the situation: “In previous

projects we had designed a solution using a VAMP protection

relay with our own SCADA system. During the commissioning

of these projects we had encountered significant hurdles and

limitations with that software and the team felt they needed to

look again at the market to find a more advanced technical so-

lution. We wanted to find a solution that would make engineer-

ing easier and present a better overall solution for the control

and monitoring of the plant.” After assessing the various tech-

nologies available to them, the NEXPO team decided that the

zenon SCADA software from Austrian software manufacturer

COPA-DATA would best meet the project requirements.

reliable operation and controlChoe, Hyeon-Hui, the project manager at NEXPO with respon-

sibility for the two Dangjin 1000MW thermal power plant pro-

jects, says zenon’s ease of engineering was a key advantage:

“zenon is an impressive tool. The use of parameters instead of

programming and the huge library of pre-configured tools de-

signed for use in the energy industry made it a very compelling

solution. Staff at Dangjin Thermal Power Plant were also very

impressed with the graphical capabilities; zenon makes it very

easy to produce ergonomic user interfaces.”

It was important that the system deployed would:

Improve the balance control, especially for such a

large power plant

Create cost savings by reducing operating manpower

Reduce – or eliminate – the opportunities for human error

Create optimum energy efficiency through effective

protection and power control

Limit any power failure spread to a minimum

Reduce fault analysis time by delivering clear tools

and analysis.

state-of-the-art softwareChoe, Hyeon-Hui: “zenon delivered everything we asked and

more. It is a better quality system than any we have used be-

fore. By using zenon, we were able to ensure the easy operation

and maintenance of the system, easy fault analysis, a stable

communication network and reliable redundancy very simply.

In addition, the excellent technical support – in particular, the

excellent communication with COPA-DATA Korea – has really

zenon provides a clear visual overview of

the entire operation throughout the two new

buildings (Units 9 & 10).

korea ewp I energy & infrastructure

impressed us. zenon offers state-of-the-art software backed up

by a great team.” The scope of the project included the control

and monitoring of all the facilities and devices within the BOP

system, including the IEDs, electrical equipment, IED controller,

generator, transformer, capacitor bank and protection controls.

This meant that any system had to adhere to the IEC 61850

standard.

state-of-the-art servicePark Mun-Hwan describes how COPA-DATA helped the NEXPO

team ensure compliance with the IEC 61850 standard. “COPA-

DATA sent out a zenon Energy Edition expert from its head-

quarters in Salzburg to support us on the project, so we had

significant support ensuring our engineering was IEC 61850

compliant. I think this experience has been indicative of the

support and service we have received from COPA-DATA at all

levels.” Kim Jung-Bae, CEO at NEXPO, concurs: “We’re now

coming to the final stages of this huge project – a milestone

for Korean energy production. For NEXPO, the project has also

been a milestone – we have found a very impressive software

solution in zenon and an impressive partner in COPA-DATA Ko-

rea. I expect this will be just the beginning of a very impressive

partnership between NEXPO and COPA-DATA in the Korean

Energy market.”

Color-coding rapidly communicates

equipment states and operators can drill down

to access more detailed information.

energy & infrastructure I korea ewp

korea ewp dangjin thermal power plant 2 x 1000mw units (units 9 & 10)

Rapid and flexible project engineering

Intuitive and ergonomic graphical

user interface

Simple system operation and

maintenance

zenon Report Generator for powerful

reporting functionality

IEC 61850 compliance

Simple-to-configure and reliable

redundancy

Remote monitoring and control

Optimum reliability and security